


Reality Coming Down

by dimensionhoppingrose, Eva_aka_Pinkfox, fatessilence, Haywire, JustShai, lisabounce, Luciain, X_Project



Series: The Dark Phoenix Saga [4]
Category: X-Men - All Media Types, X-Project RPG
Genre: Explicit Language, Gen, X-Project RPG - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 13:05:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9441815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dimensionhoppingrose/pseuds/dimensionhoppingrose, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eva_aka_Pinkfox/pseuds/Eva_aka_Pinkfox, https://archiveofourown.org/users/fatessilence/pseuds/fatessilence, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haywire/pseuds/Haywire, https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustShai/pseuds/JustShai, https://archiveofourown.org/users/lisabounce/pseuds/lisabounce, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luciain/pseuds/Luciain, https://archiveofourown.org/users/X_Project/pseuds/X_Project
Summary: While the teams are attempting to rescue Jean(or laid up in medlab after the Muir Island attack),the school is attacked, with only the students, Charles and Emma to defend it.Part 4 of theThe Dark Phoenix Saga. Plot by Dex.The Invisible Girl played by AJ, Network by Jeff, the White Queen by Amanda, Ricochet by L, Bruiser by Mack, Dagger by Rei, Cloak by Shai, Velocidad by Michael, Spider-Miles by Ben, Topaz by Sam, Trance by Eva and Meggan by Rachel





	1. Log 1

The tension in the mansion was almost palpable. The chaos had boarded the Blackbird with the X-forces, but it left a quiet anxiety behind that had those mutants left behind on edge.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. 

The students and staff that remained in Westchester were keeping themselves busy enough, but the tasks they'd been given proved to be little distraction. Now, that waiting period was over, and more of their own had fallen.

Charles' office was deathly silent, broken only by the slight sound of his breathing. the founder of the X-Men was sitting by the window, staring unseeingly out of the window, where snow was falling fitfully. The still white blanket over the grounds was just another contrast to the turmoil that was Charles' mental and emotional state. 

Behind him, the door opened, and he finally spoke without turning from the window:

"Emma. Please, come in."

"Charles." Emma’s acknowledgement of the Professor was curt. "Watching the world end? A bang or a whimper, do you think? If, of course," she added as she settled into the chair opposite Charles, "you think we’ll be around long enough to see it end."

"We were here at the beginning. I never thought there would be an end, let alone one like this." Charles finally turned from the window, moving his chair so that he was facing Emma's seat. "You've heard about India, I suppose?"

"As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced," quoted Emma. "I could hardly fail to hear about India," she said. Emma had faced death and destruction and the threatened end of the world on a number of occasions now. Her reaction, as always, tended towards the acerbic. "That many people dying makes... a hole in the world."

"In all the worlds." Charles' expression was distant again. "All of this... it's punching holes in the fabric of reality and everything is beginning to bleed together. We both can feel it. So far, the mansion has been an oasis in all of this chaos. But that won't last."

"Of course it won't," replied Emma. "We aren't that lucky." She sighed suddenly. "All I ever wanted to do was save my brother and sisters from the monsters," she said. "I don't remember signing up to save the world. I'm fairly certain the lawyers would have mentioned it." She let the smallest fraction of her cold mask slip. "Do you think we can save it, Charles? It. Them. Whichever applies."

"I don't know, Emma." Charles sighed again, thinking of everything - everyone that had been lost already. Below them, outside on the grounds, a bundled up figure, one of the students, hurried past. "But we must try, regardless. For their sakes." His expression changed then, his next words losing that lost tone, once again the crisp, authoritative tones of Professor X. "We don't have much time - the fluxes in the fabric of reality are growing stronger and more focused over the school. It's up to you and I, Emma, to organise the defence, such as it will be."

"Dark gods and firebirds and holes in the world," said Emma dryly. "How does one defend against those?" She raised a mental hand as Charles went to reply. "Shall we just start with plans for defending the mansion and work our way out to stitching the universe back into place?" She closed her eyes for a moment, giving the pain less than a second to have its way with her, and then putting it back in its box. "Much as I'd like to resurrect the dead, I suspect that may be beyond even us."

"The dead are gone. Our duty now is to the living." Charles' voice was flat, but his mind was a raging storm. "As much as we have always tried to protect the children, this will be their fight also. There are too few of us left."

Emma had a number of views about Charles and the protection of children, but now didn't seem the time to raise them. "The children will understand what is necessary," she chose to say. "Their friends have died. Saying we can protect those that are left would hardly be believable in the circumstances." She sighed, turned to practicalities. "How many do we have left here? And how many can lead a team?"

"Of the X-Men, none. Those that survived Muir are still recovering." Charles looked grim. "Johnny Gallo is the only one unharmed and he is a relatively new trainee. There are some of the graduates and older residents: Sarah Vale, Meggan Szardos, Sue Storm, Tandy Bowen. Of them, I would suggest Sue as a team leader. She has a good head on her shoulders and is used to responsibility."

Emma nodded slowly. She had got to know Sue reasonably well during their lessons in robotics and what she knew indicated that Sue would not fall apart under the pressure of sudden command. “And the younger students?” she asked. “I know Molly, at least, is still here.”

Charles nodded. "She is, yes, along with Topaz and Hope Abbott. There are also our two newer students - Miles Morales and Tyrone Johnson. Miles has some... experience at least, in taking care of himself in dangerous situations, and Topaz has seen more than her share of combat with various magical incidents."

Emma closed her eyes, visualising the layout of the school in her head. “I would think,” she said slowly, “three teams. That’s probably the best we can do with the numbers that we have. With Sue leading one and I can lead another, but...” she frowned, opened her eyes. “I can’t think of anyone that could lead the third?”

Charles had nodded his agreement with Emma's suggestions, and then hesitated. "Well, there is another new face... Gabriel Cohuelo. You may have seen him on the journal system. He..." Despite himself, a faint grin crossed his face. "He came to our notice when he attempted to steal Jean's wallet in a bar in downtown New York."

Emma raised an eyebrow in polite not-quite-disbelief. "That... doesn't sound like it would end well," she said dryly. "Are you sure you trust him to lead the team, when he's that poor at judging risk?" Her question was almost, but not quite, teasing. 

Charles caught the tone and inclined his head. "Touche, Emma. But he is resourceful and cunning, and I think in this situation that will be needed. And he has made friends here even in the short time since he arrived. I think he will do what he can to keep his people safe."

"As will we all," replied Emma, softly. "I can only hope that it will be enough."


	2. Log 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Emma's team meets the first group of attackers who break into the school foyer._

Orders had been given. Mutants had been organized. Strategy had been discussed. This time, the battle was coming home. 

Emma surveyed the group of students in front of her, thinking over the short, sharp list of attributes she'd been provided. Molly she knew well, but the others she barely knew at all. With a quick flick of her mind, she tested their capacity to receive her telepathy and noted that nobody was naturally shielded against her. 

"You all know I'm a telepath," she started. "Before anyone starts tearing this place apart again, I'll make a link between us. You can keep your shields up, in case we've got incoming telepaths, but I can make a link that bypasses that. None of you have to panic if we get physically separated - I will make sure everyone can stay in contact." Unless you're dead, she didn't add. "So, Molly and I are our heavy hitter, invulnerable types," she nodded at Ty and Tandy, "I understand you two work with light and shadow. That seems... complementary." 

Molly tried to listen to Ms. Frost the 2nd carefully, but inside she was a little nervous. Okay, a lot nervous. She'd heard a little about the bad things that was going on. The adults weren't saying much other than what they thought the students needed to know but she could tell they were in super serious mode. Some were also really sad. People had died. She let out a breath. Okay. She was the heavy hitter, unsquishable type. Time to be that way like... in her brain too. 

"So we all need to work together and like... fight the thing, right? We can totally do that!" she said, then paused hopefully. 

"Right?" 

"Right." Tandy said to Molly with a smirk. The teen had been trained to work as a team but nothing this serious - but she had survived before and she hoped to do it again. "Just tell us what to do." The crescent moon around her right eye was glowing brightly. The blonde was ready. 

Ty felt the side of his body closest to Tandy warm, and the constant, gnawing hunger in his gut faded away. "We can beat it down, Molly-girl," he said reassuringly. 

"Of course we can," said Emma, briskly. "Nothing like self-preservation to ensure that we put our best efforts into this." She nodded around them. "The obvious point of entry is the door - no matter how much they're reinforced, they're always weaker than the walls. If I go there, I'll need to go diamond, and that will take out my telepathy. We may need to change plans suddenly depending on what turns up, so that's probably unwise. It's not something I'd normally ask, but Molly, would you be willing to be the guardian of the door? You'll need to be as strong as you can be, right from the start, because you'll be our first protector." 

Had this been the first time she'd fought a lot of bad guys, Molly would have been very surprised. But she'd done a lot since she'd come to live with the X-People, in other dimensions and the city and the mansion and in her brain so...another fight in the mansion? No sweat. Maybe. Taking a deep breath, Molly adjusted her hat and brought up her fists with a super serious nod. 

"O--okay. I can totally do that," she said. 

"Let's rock. When do they show up?" It'd be nice if there was a big giant countdown clock. 

Tandy would had laughed if their situation were different. She was secretly hoping that no one would show up and this was just a big exercise - or a dream she was going to wake up from. "Miss Frost..." She looked over at her guardian's sister, "Would you like Ty and I to back up Molly from the back?" 

Ty rolled his shoulders and rubbed his knuckles. "We can cover her, keep her safe from this side." 

"You can work together, yes?" asked Emma. "Light making shadow and shadows made real." She noted their affirmative nods and pointed towards place where they could stand, in corners where light already criss-crossed and split apart. 

Tandy looked away from her group and towards the door, "Shh. I hear something." There was a brief moment of silence before the sounds of something that Tandy never heard before. Whatever it was slammed against the door and it buckled a bit. "Whatever they are. They are here. Get ready." 

"Dun dun dun," Molly mumbled faintly under her breath, trying to be funny so she wouldn't be so nervous. It was totally going to be cool. They'd be fine. They'd--- 

The slamming stopped abruptly. It was silent for a few moments before a knock was heard at the door, three raps. 

"Hello? Is anyone home?" a voice said, sounding extremely very familiar. 

It was herself. 

The door suddenly burst open, splinters of wood flying everywhere as a quartet of mutants made their way in. 

"Hope you don't mind if we let ourselves in!" the other Molly Hayes proclaimed, this one sporting a cybernetic arm and eye. Her other eye glowed purple. 

Ty _knew_ his stare was the wrong side of idiotic, but he couldn't seem to get his eyes down from dinner-plate sized. It was _him_ , granted a highly metallic and definitely edging into cheesy villain version of him, but he looked into that face in every mirror. "This is so w-weird," he said. 

"Nope. Nope NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE." Tandy was shaking her head as she was looking at herself. But it wasn't really her, it was someone that looked like her. "That... is totally not me." 

At least it wasn't a demon this time, thought Emma. Not that looking at a cyborg version of herself was particularly better. Some parts of her/it were organic diamond, seemingly permanently, some metal, some flesh. Emma stabbed out violently with her telepathy and noted that it skittered off the mind in front of her, falling into the hole where technology met mind. ~I think your alternate will try and come for you,~ she sent. ~But try not to fight yourself,~ she sent out to her team. ~You'll match too closely. Try and mix your opponents up.~ 

Noticing how weird it was that the cyborgs were all them and not evil versions of other X-People, Molly backed up, eyeing herself and their twins. For a few moments everyone stood there. It was quiet, except for people fighting in the background. 

Molly noticed how her twin seemed to be realllly happy, like just super excited to be there. She squinted. 

"So I act like that all the time?" Man this was so freaky. 

Her twin grinned. "Totally!" she said. She grabbed a metal tray off one of the tables. "No more talking, let's fight now!" she then added, flinging it at Molly's head. 

Her eyes widening, she let out a squeak, ducking as the tray embedded itself in the wall. The other cyborgs took off as well, engaging with their alternate selves. It was like something out of a TV show. But at least they had cybernetic parts so there wouldn't be much 'But I'm the real me! She's the fake!' 

It was exactly as Emma expected - the Emma-borg came straight for her all-flesh twin. The things that had been her hands were not now; instead the Emma-borg raised things that looked most like angle grinders and aimed them at her dimensional sister. "Oh no," said Emma. "No you don't." Diamond washed across her features. "These are my people, Emma-mine, and you are not having them."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> X-Project is an X-Men Movieverse/MCU RPG on Dreamwidth. It started in 2003, set right after the second X-Men movie, and from there took on a life of its own. Thirteen years later it’s become a universe all its own, and includes characters from all walks of Marvel life – no character is too small or too obscure for X-Project. We roleplay mainly through writing logs on email, as well as posts on Dreamwidth.
> 
> If you're interested, check out the below links!
> 
>   
> [Welcome to X-Project](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Welcome_To_X-Project) | [Application](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application) | [Available Characters](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Unplayed_Characters) | [Game Wiki](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) | [Read The Game](http://xp-friends.dreamwidth.org/read) | [FAQ](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=FAQ) | [Contact Us](mailto:x_moderators@googlegroups.com) | [Follow Us on Twitter!](http://twitter.com/#!/xprojectrpg) | [Rules](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Policy) | [Tumblr](http://www.tumblr.com/blog/xprojectrpg) | [Application Checklist](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application_Checklist)  
> 


	3. Log 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Gabriel's team is focused on closing off the security sections of the upstairs, fighting off attackers who break in._

Nothing made any sense.

On a basic level, Gabriel understood all the words that had been thrown at him: Attackers from other universes were coming to the mansion. He and a band of mutant misfits had to secure the upstairs. To ensure their survival.

But when he actually thought about what that meant, he hit a snag. This whole mess with Jean was perplexing. As was the fact that he was playing any role in this busines and not running the hell away. That he'd stayed in one place despite impending doom and chaos was just... bizarre.

Still, there'd be time to think about that later. (Or there wouldn't, in which case, he figured, problem solved.)

"Okay. Let's get to work locking this place down." He cleared his throat, unsure if the commanding voice coming from his mouth was his own. It was. "Not entirely sure what we're dealing with, so have your finely-tuned Danger Room senses alert."

He glanced down to his right. "Y no seas tonto doing something that's going to get you killed because you saw it in a movie, cumpa." He meant it. Like it or not, Gabriel was going to make sure Miles didn't get killed under his watch.

Miles opened his mouth to argue but this situation was so beyond even the worst scenario he could have realistically imagined that there was nothing to do except agree. Real actual lives depended on him, Miles Morales, not some pendejo in a crappy knockoff costume. "No pasa nada, Teach," he said instead. "Just tell us what to do."

"I think I can activate some of the security systems if I can get close enough to them." Sarah chipped in. Her powers didn't require physical contact any longer, not since Genosha, but she still had a limited range when it came to using them. "It's worth a shot anyway, right?"

Johnny nodded. "Yeah." He was an X-Man. Almost. That counted for something, right? "We did a lot for the internal security in the mansion a few years ago, apparently." He took a deep breath and shook his shoulders and arms out. "We can do this."

"Yeah, get to it, Sarah. We'll run backup. " Gabriel glanced at her. He didn't have the faintest understanding how her powers work. Or Miles'. Or his own, really. And yet here they were, defending the castle.

He took a deep breath, unclenching a fist he hadn't realized was tensed. "Roomie, you're our alarm. Plus, I think you have better reflexes than any of us. And kid, you're somehow our muscle. If something bad's coming, just attack it." Where'd that leave him? Running? Gabriel was good at running.

"I'm going to do a lap. See if I can do something six times faster than it takes a normal human. Maybe I'll barricade some damn doors." Or find a big gun. "Should only take me, like, 30 seconds, and I won't go far. Yell if something's up - I'll hear it."

"No worries about that." Sarah replied. Screaming she had down pat; unfortunately, the same could not be said for interfacing with the mansion's security systems remotely. It wasn't something she'd tried before, to be fair, and now she was walking about, reaching out with her powers in an attempt to make a connection. Nothing was jumping out at her but she kept searching.

Miles stood close to her so he could be ready to keep her safe from any threats. His spider-sense had been buzzing softly in his head all day, as if warning him of the potential for danger that was now constantly around them, but he visibly relaxed when Gabriel zoomed back a minute later. And then immediately tensed up again and fell into combat mode as his spider-sense blared like a klaxon. That wasn't Gabriel.

Johnny jumped, his own danger sense flaring as he dropped into a crouch, one of the heavy metal disks he used as ranged weapons held ready to throw and the baseball bat he'd picked up earlier still clutched in his free hand. What the hell. What the hell. 

It wasn't Gabriel. Well, it was, nominally, but the figure that stood before the mutants was missing an ear and a mangled right hand. Some of the skin appeared to have fallen off his face. Its beard was patchy. 

"Guys," it called out in a loud moan, "we—"

His words were interrupted by the sound of breaking glass. A second later, the disfigured Gabriel-lookalike fell to the ground as the real, living one appeared behind him. "Guys," he said, casting a glance down and trying not to lose his shit, "we've got company." 

As if on queue, three more figures trudged toward the group. 

Sarah had seen plenty of horror movies in her short lifetime - many cuddled up with Layla - and she never would've guessed she'd be so stereotypical as to point and scream should she ever encounter any movie monsters in real life.

She was wrong.

Screaming at the top of her lungs, she reached for the fencing sword, her weapon of choice, and backed away from them. The extra scary part was that they looked eerily familiar.

Zombies. Doppelganger zombies. With their powers, if Gabriel's fallen copy was any indication. This was wack. What the hell do you even do with mutant zombie clones? Miles glanced between his three partners. "Blunt force to the head always stops them in movies," he put forward, trying to be as helpful as he could. "So, um, punch them until they don't get up anymore?"

Johnny shook his head. "Go for the joints. Smash their knees and they can't stand. If they're down, they're slower." He barely had time to get that out.

Easier said than done. These weren't mindless shuffling Day of the Dead zombies. These were the fast and vicious 28 Days Later zombies, evidenced by Miles's counterpart leaping forward with incredible speed and tackling the boy to the ground. Miles struggled to free himself but kept his eyes and mouth shut so he could take in any of the blood dripping from the massive wounds and gashes that decorated the zombie's body.

"Miles!" Gabriel sped up, whipping around behind the undead version of the boy and trying to wrestle his clone away. He tried not to gag as his hands touched necrotic flesh. But he flinched, and that was the opportunity that his double needed to jump to his feet and punch Gabriel in the jaw. The man staggered backward, and the zombie shoved him against a wall.

"Feh, idiot." A low drawl came out of a lipless, sagging mouth that was close to Gabriel's ear. He held Gabriel against the wall but pulled his face back and looked toward the rest of his group. "I forgot how attractive I was before the plague came," he smirked, then glanced back at Gabriel, who struggled under his grasp. "But not as strong. Oh, this is gonna be fun."

Over his aggressor's decaying shoulder, Gabriel tried to catch Sarah's eye. He made a small motion toward Miles.

Sarah noticed the look but was pretty overwhelmed with the vision before her. It was troubling enough to see a zombie version of herself, especially given her ex's mutant powers to raise the dead and all, which was messing with her mind even more. Why was she thinking about Layla at a time like this? Was that her life flashing before her eyes, was she going to-

"No," she said out loud, mostly for herself, as she swung her sword low at the ersatz Sarah's knees. The edge bit deep into decaying flesh, not strong or sharp enough to cut clean through but enough to fell the creature for the time being.

Stepping backwards so it couldn't grab her, Sarah looked around for a chance to create a distraction. She settled for overloading the lights and causing them to spark and explode overhead, and causing a nearby radio to blast out static, which might give their attackers pause long enough to grant them the upper hand.

"Get off!" Miles raised a leg and threw his zombie off him, which crashed into the wall behind them. Miles then jumped to his feet and made a dash for Gabriel. The punch he threw would have been strong enough to crack a normal person's skull. In the case of a putrefying zombie, it knocked his jaw clean off. Blood and spittle poured from the beast, but Miles only allowed a momentary show of disgust before he grabbed the zombie's shoulders and tore him off Gabriel.

The zombie made a noise like laughter, though without a jaw, it was a little tough to tell. "Good," he spat out blood. "I like it rough."

"Shut up, you twisted fuck." Gabriel sped forward to punch his double in the chest, but the zombie anticipated his attack and dodged to the side. "Johnny," the living Gabriel shouted, "bat?" 

He'd laid low, avoiding the carnage of his fellows for the moment, but with the others going down and the humans distracted, it was the perfect time to jump into the fray - the zombie Johnny dodged between people with a finesse that seemed impossible, go straight for Gabriel. His speed made him a nuisance, he would have to go down first.

Had he not been occupied with his depraved double, Gabriel would have had more time to avoid zombie-Johnny's course. As it was, he had just a second to turn his body so that he limited the impact not-Johnny made when he barreled into Gabriel. He grunted as the fake Johnny's shoulder went into his chest and doubled over from the blow. "Bat," he grunted again, looking up to see two zombies moving toward him.

Johnny's danger sense had been working overtime with so many threats and he was frozen in place, not sure where to go first and trying so hard not to just turn and run - if he ran far enough, he might not have to try to be a superhero. Gabriel. Gabriel was going to die. Johnny moved, swinging the bat and the zombie's head split like a watermelon, a few chunks of half-rotted brain spraying out from the impact. "Holy Mary, mother of God. Oh fuck," he muttered and swung the bat again, this time going for the knees of another zombie. "Oh fuck."

Part of the flying splatter landed on Sarah's arm. It shouldn't have fazed her, given that she'd just been hacking at a zombie herself only a handful of moments ago, but somehow having someone else's handiwork land on her like that sent her over the edge. She screamed and jumped back, knocking against a nearby chair and falling flat on her behind, her fencing sword falling out of her hands as she landed.

"No!" Sarah yelled as she instinctively rolled over and started crawling towards it in a panic.

"Sarah, get up!" Miles practically pleaded while he frantically dodged his twin's attacks. "Teach..."

"Yeah, hero, I'm on it." Still winded from having a zombie hurtle toward his chest, Gabriel tried to straighten himself up. You're doing good, Miles." His hands were shaking. "You're doing good."

Zombie Johnny's innards were on his jeans, and it only took a quick look to see that Real Johnny had knocked him down for the count. Impressive considering none of them had the slightest idea what they were doing. Which meant the most immediate issue - beyond his having no idea what the hell he was doing and how any of them would survive this - was...

Sarah. Gabriel clenched his fists, willing his powers to work as he started toward her sword. "I got this," he muttered to himself, though he was nowhere close to believing it. "I got this." Nobody was going to die. Nobody was going to die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> X-Project is an X-Men Movieverse/MCU RPG on Dreamwidth. It started in 2003, set right after the second X-Men movie, and from there took on a life of its own. Thirteen years later it’s become a universe all its own, and includes characters from all walks of Marvel life – no character is too small or too obscure for X-Project. We roleplay mainly through writing logs on email, as well as posts on Dreamwidth.
> 
> If you're interested, check out the below links!
> 
>   
> [Welcome to X-Project](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Welcome_To_X-Project) | [Application](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application) | [Available Characters](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Unplayed_Characters) | [Game Wiki](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) | [Read The Game](http://xp-friends.dreamwidth.org/read) | [FAQ](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=FAQ) | [Contact Us](mailto:x_moderators@googlegroups.com) | [Follow Us on Twitter!](http://twitter.com/#!/xprojectrpg) | [Rules](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Policy) | [Tumblr](http://www.tumblr.com/blog/xprojectrpg) | [Application Checklist](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application_Checklist)  
> 


	4. Log 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Sue's team focuses on the rear of the mansion, closing it off and fighting back attackers_

Given the attack that just had been prophesied, the grounds of the Xavier Institute felt surprisingly calm. Had those inside not known what was coming, it might have been easy to be lulled into a false sense of security.

Sue sat in a window, her eyes flicking back and forward between the view and the tablet on her lap, which was flicking through images from the cameras scattered around the grounds. The mansion, which was normally so busy and loud, was utterly silent, as if the grounds themselves were holding their breath waiting for the first strike. It was the eerie kind of silence you didn't want to be the first to break, the kind of silence you knew would become something bad once it was broken.

Yet someone needed to say something, she realized as she glanced around at the others all wrapped up in their thoughts, and for her crimes, she was in charge of her friends. "We're sure we bared the downstairs door, right?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

In contrast to Sue's constant vigilance, Topaz was sitting with her back against the wall, knees pulled up to her chest, eyes closed. It was a mostly relaxed position, though the young witch was anything but – she had her shields down completely, reaching out as far as she could, waiting for the first sign of something she didn't recognize. At Sue's question, her eyes snapped open, and she tilted her head up to look at the blonde. "Yeah." Her voice sounded a bit odd in the otherwise silent atmosphere. "It's all set." She didn't add that she didn't think it would do much good - if whatever was coming wanted in, it would get in. But nobody needed her pessimism right then.

Six, five, four, three, two, one. Quickly Hope counted the windows from her shadowy cover, and then her astral form was flitting through the sky and making her way inside, straight to the window. With a deep breath, she slipped back in her body and blinked a few times, rising quickly to perch next to Sue, looking over her shoulder at the camera images. "I haven't spotted anyone in this area..." She pointed at the edge of a picture. "... visually or by their auras. The same goes for the corner by the road, though the camera there seemed melted. It might be a corner that needs watching..."

Meggan stood from where she had been seated and looked out the window. She saw there was at least one area of cover near that corner, even if it wasn't much. “I could watch from there. From that tree,” she offered. Nobody would have to stand out in the open, then, was her reasoning. She could blend in and signal if she saw something approaching.

Sue bit her lip glancing nervously back and forth between her teammates before nodding, "Do it," she decided, "If one of the cameras here is melted then it wasn't by mistake, someone's probably sneaking around there. Meggan," They needed codenames, they were a team, her team, after all if only for this mission, "be careful. If there is someone out there, don't let them see you. If anything looks suspicious, then just get out of there." she said wryly. It sounded like trite advice, but none of her friends were going to get hurt on her watch.

While they talked, Topaz closed her eyes again, feeling around the shields she'd established and after a moment of thought putting a bit more energy into them. The stronger the better, though she highly doubted they were going to do any good. But every extra minute counted, right?

Of course, if this actually came to a fight she was going to be in trouble. Hopefully whatever was coming had viable emotions, because draining her friends in the middle of a fight wouldn't be an option.

"Wait..." Hope leaned closer to Sue, peeking over her shoulder and studying the tablet intently. "Was that just a flicker I saw in the trees, or am I just seeing things?" She frowned at the tablet, scanning the area where she thought she had seen the flash.

"Maybe?" The blonde replayed the feed from the camera, "It's hard to tell, it could be anything." The blonde nodded at Meggan, "we should probably swing by on patrol and check it out? It may be nothing, or it may be someone sneaking up on the mansion." she sighed and gestured at the tablet, "It's just too hard to tell."

Meggan looked closer, but it was too quick to be certain of anything other than it was just there. It could even be an innocent reflection, but right now she supposed it was better to check than to be disastrously sorry later, or have only one person left behind and get pounced on. “That sounds like a good idea,” she nodded.

Easily rising from her position behind Sue, Hope returned to her pillows by the wall, the flower unfolding already taking shape in her mind. Yet she held back, waiting for the rest of the people to get ready. And who knew, she might actually take her body with her this time, just to be sure...

Topaz dropped her shields, shoving past the panicked, scattered emotions of the other students and Xavierites. It was surprisingly easy to pick through that and find the outliers - the ones who were calm, the ones who weren't worried. "Three... four maybe," she muttered, shaking her head. "Can't pinpoint locations, but they're out there -- _shite_ ," she cut herself off with a curse as she felt something brush against the shields she'd erected outside. "And one of them's magic."

Sue dropped her tablet as she pushed herself up of the windowsill, "Four of them, we can handle that," she said with a confidence she didn't feel. Please don't let me screw up, she thought as she led the way towards the door. "Topaz, let us know when we get close to them, don't want to let anyone get the drop on us."

With magic involved, could they be certain that there were only four out there? That more weren’t hidden away? Meggan didn’t want to voice that thought, as it would only worry everyone more than they already were. Then again, another option popped into her head. “They might be using magic to only be picked up as those tiny flickers,” she commented as she followed.

Hope kept an eye out for a place to drop her body out of the way... fighting in her astral form was not her strongest suit, as Egypt had shown her, and she knew herself well enough that fighting in her physical form would be even worse. Scouting and S&R was something she was far more suited for, she muttered to herself.

Topaz opened her mouth to respond to Meggan's suspicions - only to freeze when she felt the strangest sensation run through her mind. Like something was sticking her straw in her mind and siphoning off of it. Having never been on the receiving end of her own draining, it took her a moment to realize exactly what was happening. "What the _hell_?" She gasped, slamming her shields back up and whirling around to see - well, herself, standing at the back of a small group much like the one she was in, with a Sue and a Meggan and a Hope to accompany her. " _That_ is starting to get annoying." Once was bad enough.

This was so strange. The other Meggan even felt like she might have been her, aside from the whole presumably evil twin thing. Which she settled on by the fact Topaz wanted to hurt Topaz. Would it hurt to kick at someone that might be you? She’d find out eventually, unless there was something like a paradox to worry over, in addition to everything else! Meggan was watching the one that looked like her warily.

Sue stared across the gap trying her hardest to resist the urge to raise her hand and wave it back and forth like they did in the movies, only she wasn't in front of a mirror. Aside from the clothes though, she'd never owned a blue dress quite like that. It looked almost Victorian, if not for all the brass... gadgets. The blonde couldn't help but try and figure out what they did, while recognizing the smirk and set of the shoulders. "This is freaky," she murmured.

"Not again..." Hope shook her head as she looked over her counterpart, who was dressed in a strange combination of cream lace and brass decoration, with even an lace parasol. "I already faced punk me in India!" She muttered in a low voice, trying to lighten the sudden tension a bit. 

"Well, I have to say, this one's a bit more attractive than the last alternate me," Topaz muttered back. "The lack of horns is refreshing." She was distracted by the energy she saw sparking between her alternate self's fingers. "Shite. _Down_!" She hollered, just barely managing to get a shield in front of them before the other her attacked.

Sue pushed herself up off the ground coughing up dirt as she glared across the way at their doppelgangers. "That wasn't very nice," she cautioned angrily, a forcefield flaring to life around her fists as she took a menacing step towards the other group, "not very nice at all."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> X-Project is an X-Men Movieverse/MCU RPG on Dreamwidth. It started in 2003, set right after the second X-Men movie, and from there took on a life of its own. Thirteen years later it’s become a universe all its own, and includes characters from all walks of Marvel life – no character is too small or too obscure for X-Project. We roleplay mainly through writing logs on email, as well as posts on Dreamwidth.
> 
> If you're interested, check out the below links!
> 
>   
> [Welcome to X-Project](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Welcome_To_X-Project) | [Application](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application) | [Available Characters](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Unplayed_Characters) | [Game Wiki](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) | [Read The Game](http://xp-friends.dreamwidth.org/read) | [FAQ](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=FAQ) | [Contact Us](mailto:x_moderators@googlegroups.com) | [Follow Us on Twitter!](http://twitter.com/#!/xprojectrpg) | [Rules](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Policy) | [Tumblr](http://www.tumblr.com/blog/xprojectrpg) | [Application Checklist](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application_Checklist)  
> 


	5. Log 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Emma's team is pushed back, forcing her to mobilize the injured as much as possible._

It turned out cyborg mutants were tough to kill, even with one of the world's most powerful telepaths leading the charge. The confrontation in the foyer continued to rage on, punctuated by the occasional sounds of battle that echoed throughout the mansion. 

Tandy dodged a cyborg mutant attack before she unleashed her daggers toward her target. She wasn't quick enough for another one ,as her forearm was hit by another. "I can't keep this up." She retreated slightly, trying to keep distance between herself and the enemy. 

Nearly tripping over a rug, Molly quickly righted herself, but at the cost of knocking over one of the vases on top of a dresser by running into it. Her eyes widened. 

"Uh oh!" she said. 

"Hee! You are so grounded!" a voice, belonging to one evil, alternate Molly Hayes chimed. 

"Don't worry though, cause we're gonna kill you first, kay? So you won't get to be grounded!" she then added, sounding like she was sincerely attempting to be helpful as she used her cybernetic arm to grab the dresser her counterpart had just ran by and threw it at them. 

The real Molly blinked. "What? Eeek!" she said, catching the dresser and throwing it back at her.

"Shut up, me! You are not!" 

The Mol-Borg giggled, dodging the dresser, which shattered into a million pieces. "Are too! We're the best! We're gonna like... rip out your guts and stuff. Hmm... I wonder if I can do that to myself? That'd be so cool if I could!" 

Molly's mouth dropped open, horrified. "Ew! What the heck? I am so creepy!" 

Ty wasn't much for words, either one of him. The shadows pulled back and forth in a bizarre tug-of-war with neither party gaining any ground. "This isn't getting us anywhere." He dove in front of Tandy as the mechTandy threw a strange dagger at her. It struck him in the belly, and Ty stiffened as the energy hit him. And spread through his body in a warm, wonderful heat. "We gotta switch it up!" 

Tandy ran forward past Ty towards the roboTy. She wasn't afraid of the shadows that seemed to be crawling towards her. In her hands were already daggers ready for striking, but she held out until she dodged out of roboTy's swing and came around in the back. She unleashed her daggers several times into his back, hoping maybe to overload him with enough light. She wasn't sure if this would work, but she knew that if RoboTandy had her powers, they would be immune to each others. 

Emma glanced around her, noted that her team seemed to be holding their own at the moment, leaving her to concentrate on her alternate-self. The strangeness of seeing herself an amalgam of flesh and metal and organic diamond had long since melted away, but familiarity hadn't stopped the cyborg-Emma from concentrating on her own alternate. Not that it really surprised Emma, who was not in the least unaware of her own ego. 

Nonetheless, her alternate was caught behind the battles going on between them and Emma took the opportunity to drop her form back into flesh and reach out again with her telepathy, trying to create any kind of wedge that would open up the minds in front of her. Once again there was the shape of minds and then, then, then - it was like a hole into which her telepathy fell, a gap that seemed born of the melding of mind and metal. It felt (and Emma shuddered lightly at the memory) like Mastermold all over again, and Emma's telepathy had been no use against it. 

Emma shrugged, slipped back into diamond form and started hurling whatever she could get her hands on at her alternative self. 

Molly shrugged, ignoring the MolBorg's disappointed reaction as she headed for RoboTandy. She grabbed the closest thing, a chair, and threw it at her. 

Meanwhile the MolBorg, now a little mad, went for Ty. "Hey! I was having fun. But I can totally kick your a--er...Rear!" she said, aiming to literally do that while he was on the ground by attempting to kick him like a football against a wall. 

RoboTandy was hit by the chair which caused her to be distracted for a split second. Finding the one who threw it, she gave Molly an smirk. "See if you can dodge this." She let loose five daggers towards the younger mutant. 

Ty wrapped shadows around MolBorg's middle and held her up in the air, so her incredible strength couldn't touch anything. He glanced over at Tandy to see how she was handling his robotic counterpart. He seemed to be overloading his electronics, with sparks jumping from the metal bits. 

Molly's eyes widened, and she tried to drive out of the way, ducking into an alcove. One of the daggers whizzed past her head, cutting off a bit of hair. Three more struck the wood paneled wall, evaporating upon contact with no living conduit in which to wreak havoc. But the fifth made it's mark, striking her in the shoulder. 

For the first time in a very long time, Molly Hayes cried out in pain, clutching at her shoulder as she slid down the wall to sit on reflex. It had been so long that she almost forgot what it felt like. And it sucked. She tried very hard not to cry. 

And the MolBorg was kicking and screaming like a child throwing a tantrum. Had Ty been using his arms, she would've broken his wrists. Served him right. But no, he had to show off. 

"Freaking jerk!" 

~All of you, now,~ Emma's telepathic voice was unexpected, as she'd spent so long in diamond form, but she switched back now as she realised how dangerous this situation was becoming. ~We can't do this alone. We need to fall back. Head towards the medlab. Eyes forward. Keep yourself safe. Retreat and regroup.~ 

Tandy went to Molly's side to help her. "Come on. Let's go. Let's hope the others are okay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> X-Project is an X-Men Movieverse/MCU RPG on Dreamwidth. It started in 2003, set right after the second X-Men movie, and from there took on a life of its own. Thirteen years later it’s become a universe all its own, and includes characters from all walks of Marvel life – no character is too small or too obscure for X-Project. We roleplay mainly through writing logs on email, as well as posts on Dreamwidth.
> 
> If you're interested, check out the below links!
> 
>   
> [Welcome to X-Project](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Welcome_To_X-Project) | [Application](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application) | [Available Characters](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Unplayed_Characters) | [Game Wiki](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) | [Read The Game](http://xp-friends.dreamwidth.org/read) | [FAQ](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=FAQ) | [Contact Us](mailto:x_moderators@googlegroups.com) | [Follow Us on Twitter!](http://twitter.com/#!/xprojectrpg) | [Rules](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Policy) | [Tumblr](http://www.tumblr.com/blog/xprojectrpg) | [Application Checklist](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application_Checklist)  
> 


	6. Log 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Sue and Gabriel's teams merge, relieving some of the pressure on Emma's team._

The fight was going well, but not well enough. It turned out zombies were surprisingly hardy, which meant at this point - even with not-Johnny down and his own undead twin on the ropes - Gabriel was exhausted. And he could tell from scanning the faces of his allies that they were feeling the same way too. 

The other thing he was beginning to realize was that pausing to assess the situation might have been a mistake. "Incoming!" 

Miles fell and rolled to the left to avoid the speedy zombie's attack, but that left him open to his own zombie alt, who roughly pulled him up and flung him into the wall. Literally into the wall, as in he left a good Miles-shaped hole in it. He crawled out in time to avoid another mean punch that sent up an obscuring cloud of dust and plaster when it went through the wall, and frog-leaped over his twin to get to Gabriel's. He managed to get a finger on the demon speedster before he moved out of the way, but that was all Miles needed. 

"Three, two, one, zap," Miles said, smirking as his venom blast surged through zombie Gabriel, bringing him to his knees. 

Following up on Miles' attack, Sarah lunged forward with her sword, its sharp point penetrating the zombie's skull through one of its eyes with a sickening squish. There wasn't much resistance as it was a rotting zombie, after all, but still, the very nature of the action caused Sarah to shudder and almost throw up as she quickly withdrew the blade. 

"Ohmygosh, that's so gross." She shook it in an attempt to get some of the viscera off of it before remembering they were still kinda busy, then she raised it up and took on a defensive posture once more. 

Johnny stared, transfixed, as zombie Gabriel head staggered around, blind, its mouth moving and hands scrabbling at the wall, most of its head gone. If you got too close , it would probably try to grab hold, automatically. It fell over, hands now clawing at the carpet and he looked down, noticing the maggots on his shoulder and shirt. He made a strangled "nrrrrrrgh!" sound and slapped at them before being drawn back into the fight, swinging the baseball bat down into what was left of its head. "We have to get out of here. We have to run. We're pinned down up here." 

Gabriel glanced around. The other two zombie doppelgangers had watched their comrade fall. Now they looked on the group with a renewed bloodlust and hunger in their eyes. 

"You're right." He pulled a pocketknife out of his jeans and glanced at the group. "Downstairs." He pulled out the blade. "Find Sue - she's toward the back. Girl's got a forcefield, so that can't hurt." 

The young man looked toward the mutant zombies, who seemed to be having a conference of their own, albeit a more muted one with head nods and hand gestures. "Go. I'll keep these guys busy so you can get a head start. Ought to be a piece of cake." He started to run the blade across his palm, using his powers to speed up as he went. 

After a few seconds, he'd drawn what he hoped would be enough blood to keep the zombies interested. "I'll catch up." 

"Teach..." What Gabriel was asking was literally the first DON'T DO THIS rule of every zombie movie. Every instinct demanded that Miles stay and help. But since when did a last stand ever turn out well for the group, either? Dammit. They had to find Sue fast to have a chance of breaking the cliches. "No mueres, comprendes?" 

*** 

The interdimensional interlopers were proving to be a handful. With opponents who knew every weakness you had, getting the advantage was a little tough. 

A momentary break in the fight with her double allowed Topaz to double over, hands resting on her knees as she gasped for breath. Unfortunately the alternate her had jumped in early, grabbing everyone she could and draining them. Topaz had, at least, managed to make sure she hadn't gotten to Sue, Meggan, or Hope, but that still left her at a disadvantage. She was torn between stopping the other her from draining them and stopping the other her from killing her. 

God, her powers were a pain. 

"What's wrong?" The other Topaz taunted, smirking down at her exhausted opponent. "Are you done already? How boring." 

Topaz gritted her teeth as she picked herself up again, energy sparking between her fingers. "Just keep talkin'," she snapped. "That'll give me all the power I need." 

And she dove in again. 

Sue stood barely a handspan away from her doppelganger, unmoving as she stared across the blank space at the other girl. A trail of blood flowed down from the blonde's nose as she focused all her attention on her opponent, the space between them filled with the clash of two forcefields. Back and forth, needles and daggers flashed out, seeking a weakness in someone's shields, back and forth lashing out with any implement the girl's fertile imagination could come up with. The tide of battle swept forward and backwards, neither girl yielding, neither girl gaining an advantage. 

There wasn’t much Meggan could do against her other self aside from defending against an aerial attack... but the same could be said of her double. A few attacks to each other had resulted in the same kickboxing move painfully connecting. Meggan had a black eye and a few scrapes to her cheek as a result. She ducked her duplicate’s next attempt to strike out at her, and flew higher briefly to evade her hair getting ripped out – until she, too, did the same. It was an even match, but she still lashed out to successfully land a punch to her evil twin's nose before bouncing out of the way. 

Hope's astral form swooped to the side, quickly evading the arcs of electricity that shot forth from her strange-looking copy's astral form. This one's ability was clearly very different from her punk copy, and she was fairly certain that taking the situation to the astral plane was not going to help her here. Another arc lanced forward, and she caught something glistening from the corner of her eyes... 

Defense. It was all Topaz could manage. She and her doppelganger had the same powers, but the other Topaz was clearly faster. Another blast of energy slammed into her shield, and she staggered back. Her head was spinning, breathing heavy - she wasn't sure how much longer she was going to be upright. 

Her head snapped up when she realized she felt people moving toward them - fast. _God please be friendly people_ , she begged silently. She wasn't sure they'd be able to handle more enemies. 

Similar thoughts were going through Sarah's mind as she charged ahead, sword at the ready. Her eyes went wide when she saw other people, got softer when she recognized them as friendly, and then widened once again as she realized there were two of them. 

"Um, what the hell?" Not that she could say much, what with the whole zombie thing, but still. 

Miles didn't know these people all that well, but he'd seen them around enough to at least be able to recognize who was good and who was a bad Stargate ripoff. "At least they're not zombies," he said to his partners before he turned to the other students. "RPG tactics, we all focus on one at a time to take them out quick. Yeah?" 

"Topaz," Johnny said. "She can drain us - ours can. Why would that one be different? Evil Sue could probably like, smother us with her forcefields or use them to cut our heads off, but Topaz is going to think we're like ... batteries or some bullshit like that. Maybe we should go for her first." 

"You better be talkin' about her," Topaz said over her shoulder, hearing her name as she blocked another attack. Damn it. She growled under her breath as she lashed out with her mind, forcing her way past the other her's shields. "Time to share," she snapped as drained off just a bit of power before she was thrown out. The distraction was enough for her to finally get a real attack in though, firing off a blast of energy. 

"All yours," she told the trio as she stepped back. "I'll keep you shielded so she can't drain you or get attacks off." Hopefully. 

"Oh, um, ok." Sarah wasn't sure how to start the attack, because, well. It was a doppelganger, and it was apparently evil, but it was still human, wasn't it? Killing it wasn't like killing a zombie, which was already dead to start with, or something. How did they handle such a situation? 

She took up a position to try and corner the other Topaz, her sword raised and ready to defend if need be, but Sarah hesitated to do anything more than that, looking to her fellow mutants to take the lead. 

Miles had slipped into camo mode after he volunteered his strategy. It wasn't invisibility but he felt confident that the crazy fake witch was paying too much attention to the others to keep an eye on him. It was enough to let him creep up behind her and poke her on the shoulder. 

"Gonna warn you now that that's really gonna hurt in about tres segundos. Sorry not sorry." True to Miles's word, the venom blast erupted after the brief delay and briefly illuminated the room with green lightning. 

Johnny jumped and whirled, slamming a spinning kick into into alt-Topaz' head. She fell and he kicked her again as she went down, feeling a touch of guilt at that. 

"Awesome, one down," Sue acknowledged from her position, before wincing as her opponent took advantage of her momentary distraction and slammed an attack through her defenses that drove the petite blonde to her knees. "Owww, a little help here guys?" 

'Sorry, can't really help you there!' Hope projected as she evaded yet another arc. 'Even better, could some keep her busy for a bit!' Because yes, it had been scissors she had seen glinting near to where her body was... 

"Incoming, incoming, incoming!" The blur that was Gabriel came into focus as he moved down the stairs. "Not to add to whatever the fuck is happening here," he added, his words perhaps moving as fast as he had just been, "but we've got two zombies trudging their way down the stairs. I couldn't take them out." 

Actually, the undead had held their own. Gabriel's lip was bleeding, and there was blood trickling from his hand. "Yeah, uh, also, I could probably use a band—oh!" As he surveyed the battlefield - or, really, what had once been a very lovely corner of the estate - he spotted not-Hope's multi-skirted body on the ground. "Never mind." 

He powered up and sped over toward the unoccupied intruder's body. "Hope, hon, not such a bad look for you." He started ripping away the fabric from a floral skirt. "If we live, you ought to consider it." 

Seeing her chance, Hope slipped back into her own body and shook of the disorientation quickly. Sitting up, she quickly reached over for the scissors and palmed them. Another arc of lightning arced in her direction and she rolled. "Thank you, Shielda." She muttered almost unconsciously, remembering the endless ducking and rolling that had been hammered into her. 

Sitting up on her heels, she spotted her alternate's body and shuffled her way there. One heave and it was shielding her own body, and with a shaking hand, she held the scissors to the girl's throat. "Get back in here, or I will hurt you..." She called out loudly, using every trick she knew to keep her voice from shaking as much as her hand.

As much as she hated dealing with zombies, Sarah kept her eye out for them, as she'd much rather be fighting them than any of the doppelgangers. She'd rather not be fighting anyone or anything, if she had her choice, but clearly she nor any of her friends had any say at all in the matter, sadly. Keeping her sword raised and her back to the wall, she kept an eye out for a zombie to fend off and tried to stay out of everyone else's way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> X-Project is an X-Men Movieverse/MCU RPG on Dreamwidth. It started in 2003, set right after the second X-Men movie, and from there took on a life of its own. Thirteen years later it’s become a universe all its own, and includes characters from all walks of Marvel life – no character is too small or too obscure for X-Project. We roleplay mainly through writing logs on email, as well as posts on Dreamwidth.
> 
> If you're interested, check out the below links!
> 
>   
> [Welcome to X-Project](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Welcome_To_X-Project) | [Application](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application) | [Available Characters](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Unplayed_Characters) | [Game Wiki](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) | [Read The Game](http://xp-friends.dreamwidth.org/read) | [FAQ](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=FAQ) | [Contact Us](mailto:x_moderators@googlegroups.com) | [Follow Us on Twitter!](http://twitter.com/#!/xprojectrpg) | [Rules](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Policy) | [Tumblr](http://www.tumblr.com/blog/xprojectrpg) | [Application Checklist](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application_Checklist)  
> 


	7. Log 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _The teams regroup and try to make sense of what has happened._

The only thing that Molly could say was good about this situation was that at least her friends weren't evil. Still, fighting alternate versions of themselves... again... did not make her happy. Especially an evil version of herself, who was apparently realllly evil. And even though Ty had told them to split up, for some reason evil her kept wanting to fight her. 

"Just sit still! It'll be all over quick, I promise. Unless y'wanna like... I dunno, maybe help us take over the world? We can totally be supervillains!" the Mol-borg version of herself said as she chased her around a table. 

Molly curled her nose. "Dude... supervillains always get defeated. I should know that. You should be helping me stop the baddies with your cool robot arm and stuff." 

The chasing appeared to be making the two Mollys dizzy because they both stopped on opposite ends of the table. The Mol-Borg grinned. 

"Really? You think my arm's cool? Thanks! But sorry... I can't. We have to kill you all. Dark Phoenix says so. And she's scarier than you." 

Molly blinked. "DARK Phoe--?" She was cut off by the Mol-Borg suddenly rushing her, and she didn't have time to dodge as the other girl pulled a page out of Wade-Man's playbook and shoulder checked her like a linebacker, launching her through a wall. Dust and debris flew everywhere, and Molly coughed, waving it away. 

"No fair," she muttered, then peeked her head back to see a familiar face on the other side of the wall. 

"Oh, hey Sarah!" 

"Hi Molly! How are-" Sarah stopped herself there as the surreality of it all struck her. "Um, are you... are you okay?" 

She gazed through the Molly-shaped hole in the wall and saw the other Molly that had presumably knocked her through said wall. 

"Oh man, they made a double of you too?" It was hard enough fighting copies of friends her age, but to have to fight a little Molly, even if she was evil? That just plain sucked even harder. 

Emma glanced across to where Molly had gone through the wall, ready to throw rather a lot of resources into saving her if needed. "Molly..." she started, and then stopped. "You. Are Sarah. Doug told me once that you were like Mastermold ... you control technology, correct? Like that one." Emma pointed at her own alternate self. No matter that the Molly-bot might be stronger. It was the Emma-borg that was running this show. And no matter what she did, Emma just could not break into her own head. It wasn't shielding; whatever it was, it was in the interface between the human and the technology. And if Emma couldn't control the human part... 

"I do, it's my thing." Sarah said with a shrug. "Why, what can..." She trailed off when she saw what appeared to be cyborgs, her eyes widening at the sight. "Never mind, I gotcha now." 

Gathering her focus, since she was pretty sure she'd never tried to control a cyborg before and had no idea what level of tech she'd be dealing with, Sarah reached out with her powers and tried her best to communicate with the system. She didn't need complete and total control, really, just enough to make them stop attacking people would suffice for the immediate present. 

Molly waited for the Mol-borg to approach, then grabbed her by the leg, yanking her off her feet. Her double let out a yelp of surprise as she flailed wildly. Jumping up, Molly's eyes glowed purple as she tried to punch the Mol-Borg in the face, but she spun out of the way at the last minute, making Molly punch a hole through the ground. Wood went everywhere, and the ground quaked. 

Taking advantage of the distraction caused by Molly, Sarah redoubled her efforts and tried her best to disrupt the cyborgs en masse. It wasn't an elegant solution to say the least, akin to taking a machete to a trip a bonsai tree, but she figured brute force was the only viable option when it came to something so complicated. 

She groaned with the strain on her powers, leaning against a nearby wall as she struggled. "Um, can you maybe help a little?" she asked aloud, hoping that a parallel assault by Emma on their psychic side might just give them the push they needed to succeed. 

Emma dove back in again, pushing her mind into her opponents, concentrating on her alternate self. The Emma-borg noticed, turning suddenly towards her alternate. But this time, instead of her mind being a hole into which Emma fell, a bright shining bridge crossed the hole, into her other-mind. And because Emma's incursion was so unexpected, the Emma-borg's mind was completely open.

With a sigh, Emma stepped into her other-self, the flicker of history running past her, the experimentation - part-government-required, part-self-fascination, the changing and shaping of herself into a new, fabulous, better Emma. "That's what you think," said Emma and blew her other-self a kiss. "The things we could have done together..." and then reached back through Emma-borg's mind into those of the other alternate, using the telepathic link that her other-self had built, exactly as Emma would have done. 

Extending telepathic fingers, Emma fitted them into the spaces between mind and machine, ready to tear them apart. She sent a quick visual to Sarah and nodded. "Ready when you are," she said and then added, "and the quicker the better," as her alternate-self came closer and closer. 

***

Sue dropped her hands to her knees, letting her friends rush on past her as she sucked in a steadying breath. She'd been involved in – well, let's be honest, what had amounted to skirmishes before. This was the first time she'd ever engaged in what could honestly be described as a real battle.

It was intense! The battle had been touch and go for a bit, but now it looked like they had finally managed to get themselves an advantage, no matter how slim. It gave the blonde a chance to catch her breath and situate herself with her surroundings. Her team and Gabriel's were chasing down their fleeing doppelgangers, and she could even see movement on the other side of the wall. And was that something metallic? 

A quick glance assured Sue that the others were proceeding perfectly capably without her help, or at least well enough to allow her curiosity to overcome her. Sue made her way to the hole through which she'd seen the glimpse of metal. "Oh my god! Cyborgs! That's so awesome!" Never mind that they looked just like her friends; there were real living cyborgs at the mansion. Sue was squeeing in her head right now. 

Tandy was hit by RoboTandy's dagger, and though it didn't have the same affect as it might have had on others, it didn't mean it hurt any less. Holding her side, Tandy returned the favor, causing her other half to fall on the floor. She looked over to see her best friend arriving. "Sue! Stop ogling and help." 

Ty bowled into RoboTandy, knocking the cyborg to slide along the ground. He felt a tug on the shadows closest to him and ducked beneath a sharp spike of darkness. His doppelganger pulled back to try again. 

"I know, right?!" Molly said excitedly to Sue. Just cause they were evil didn't mean the idea of how all it worked sounded neat. Still... having those kinda parts meant stuff had to be taken away and replaced. How? She was unsquishable. She guessed the other her was too. So something had to happen to make her arm and eye be gone. That part... wasn't very neat. 

Shaking off that thought quite literally with a shake of her head and curl of her nose, Molly went back to focusing on the fighting. 

But this new person distracted the Mol-Borg, Molly's alternate evil self, too. She grinned at Sue. 

"Oh hey, I know you! Forge killed you when he tried to make your legs metal. You fought really hard though, if that helps?" 

She ripped a metal beam from the wall, then swung it at her. 

"Batter up!" 

Sue let a grin form on her face as she dropped into a catcher's stance, raising her hand as if to catch the swinging beam before she threw up a force field angled to the side. As the beam hit, it glanced off the forcefield, the majority of its force sliding off to the ground. Even so, the impact knocked Sue to her knees with a cough, as all the air was forced out of her lungs. Despite that, she defiantly grinned as she enclosed the metal beam in another forcefield, effectively pinning it, momentarily, to the ground. 

"If I fought him that hard, what do you think I'm gonna do to you for hurting my friends?" she asked rhetorically before giving the flesh and blood Molly a wink. "Hit it for six, Molly." she encouraged. 

Unobserved, a blonde figure in a blue Victorian era dress was observing the fight through the hole in the wall, "Now ganging up on someone like that, that's just unfair," she commented quietly, stepping through the hole and spearing a forcefield at Molly's head. "Hmm, still invulnerable. That could prove troublesome," she commented dryly, before sweeping a blow at the young girl's feet. 

Molly didn't expect the evil version of Sue, like, at all, and actually thought it was the real one for a few moments. "Hey!" she said, the blow to her head knocking her back, but not doing much except to keep her from whacking the MolBorg, and to reinforce the fact the gravity worked. She glanced between Sue, and the evil version of herself, doing a double take. 

"Oh! Hey you've got e-twin t--" she said, even as Evil Sue knocked her off her feet. Kicking back up to standing (gymnastics move for the win!), Molly grabbed a big chunk of drywall, crushing it into little bits to send dust flying everywhere as she threw the chunks at Evil Sue in an attempt to make it hard to see. 

Then? She rushed her, attempting to punch her really hard in the face (but not Molly hard, just Muhammad Ali hard). She just wanted to knock her out, not kill her. Man, when they won it was gonna be really confusing having all these bad guys that looked like them. 

"I like your twin better!" 

Meanwhile, the MolBorg eyed Sue, then grinned, and jumped up and down, hard enough to cause the room to quake, attempting to break her concentration so she could grab the beam back. 

"That's mine. I had it first." 

Tandy almost lost her footing as the ground shook from the MolBorg. "What the..." She then rushed ahead to where RoboTy was using his darkness. "Would. YOU. STOP!" Instead of using her daggers she gave him a good punch to the face ,where there were no robotic parts. 

Sue staggered as MolBorg continued to jump up and down on the floor. "Fine, you want it it's all yours." Sue smiled coldly as she released the beam, pushing it back at the cyborg as fast as she could. Unfortunately, the mini earthquake had weakened her stance so while the beam did end up flying back at MolBorg, Sue went sliding in the opposite direction.

"Totally meant that to happen," she muttered as she pushed herself to her feet, wincing at the scratches running down her side. "I'm gonna feel that in the morning.” She took up a braced stance and gestured at the young cyborg. "Where's all the wire when you need it?" the blonde asked the universe in general, "I could kinda do with an EMP right now." 

Across the room, her alternate wasn't having much better luck. Although she'd used her forcefield to deflect the younger girl's punch, enough force had transferred across to send the blonde to the other side of the room, where she was staggering to her feet, dazed and completely unaware of what was going on around her. 

Ty slid along the floor, not entirely sure who'd hit him. As he delicately brushed debris from his new scrape of road rash, he saw Amanda and Sarah with their heads together. It looked like they were hatching something. Ty pushed back into the fray to buy them time. 

***

Not wanting to lose her concentration, Sarah just gave a small nod in response and then did her thing. With the cyborgs now having to deal with Emma's much more experienced and precise work, there was less resistance on Sarah's end, a fact of which she intended to take full advantage. 

With the technopathic equivalent of shouting the sledgehammer to Emma's scalpel - she commanded the cyborgs' mechanical portions to shut down, to just stop working, period. Nothing fancy, so attempts to make them actually do anything, no matter how small or easy, just cease functioning, full stop. Sarah envisioned each of them having an on/off switch and she was flicking them all to off, then breaking the damn switch off. 

Whatever Sarah was doing with her power, Emma couldn’t really track, but she could see the results as the empty holes, the bridges, all flickered and greyed out, leaving only minds. Not even whole minds – half minds, dreadful crippled things that had relied on their mechanical half for so long that the sudden break between the two parts left the human section flailing, desperate for something to fill the hole. 

That something was Emma and she was not in the mood for mercy. The command she inserted into their minds rode over their will, their instincts, even their self-preservation. 

~Tear yourself apart,~ she sent. ~Human. Machine. Separate yourself.~ 

Emma didn't stop looking into her other-self's mind and eyes, even when Emma-borg reached diamond hand into her own chest and pulled out her mechanical heart. It beat once, twice, in diamond fist and then was still, falling to the floor as the Emma-borg followed it, a puppet with its strings cut.

***

The first inclination any of the teenagers had that something was going wrong was a stumble. The cyborgs who had all been so relentless and sure-footed actually looked unsteady as they moved; and it wasn't just one. All of them were rocking back and forth and stumbling as they approached their opponents. "This is... different," Sue noted as she fended off punches from MolBorg that were weaker and more uncoordinated than they had ever been before. "Is it just me or are they suddenly all over the place?" 

Tandy jumped back, avoiding an attack and unleashing one of her own. She saw that they were not moving how they had been a few seconds before, and she was going to use that to her advantage. "Who cares? Just bring them down." 

Molly eyed EvilSue, who was wobbling like one of those dudes in the Mortal Kombat game, then rushed her, throwing a good night Gracie punch in an attempt to knock her out. The Mol-Borg seemed to be acting like she was drunk, which was not very possible. A couple of the punches she swung at Sue were completely off their mark. 

"Sit...still you...blonde...per--" 

Suddenly all the cyborgs seemed to seize, their bodies jerking as if they were dancing, then they all dropped to the ground, like puppets with their strings cut. The MolBorg tumbled head over heels, her eyes staring vacantly into nothing. The purple light that glowed behind them died away. 

***

The tide of the battle had definitely turned.

After some quick mutterings, Gabriel and Miles had claimed the bounty on zombie-Miles, who'd been darting around with surprising longevity while his undead collaborators fell. That freed up the rest of the group to focus on their anachronistic twins.

Having her own alternate self out of the fight was a weight of Topaz's shoulder - if such a thing were possible in this situation. Of course, the three other alternates were still there and raring to fight. Not much time for relief.

"Right," she breathed. "Three of them, five of us." She was happy with those odds. Her gaze turned to the alternate Sue, who had flown through a hole in the wall and landed just a few feet away. After only a moment's hesitation, she slipped into the blonde's head, draining off her emotions with ease. She needed the extra power, and the distraction was perfect - she raised her hands, firing off a blast of energy. The forcefield around Sue buffered it, but it was still powerful enough to knock her down for a moment. 

“Another one down here. Unless she’s messing with me,” Meggan quietly called out as she caught her breath. The alternate Meggan seemed to be down for the moment, provided she wasn’t faking it to lure her closer. Again. This time, a lucky kick to the forehead when they were both in the air had surprised Meggan by making the other her collapse to the ground. She was keeping her distance, just in case. It didn’t feel like a trick, but she held off getting any closer.

"If someone can help me with her..." Hope muttered as her alternate tried yet another elbow at her side, even though Hope was practically wrapped around her. "She is getting a little tiring... Stay still!" She carefully poked a little with her scissors.

Circling one of the zombies, a returned Sarah slashed out with her sword, trying to keep the creature at bay. It wasn't so stupid as to stay close enough in her range that she could easily subdue it, but she was chopping and cutting it up pretty good, especially on its arms and hands when it reached in. Which only meant the possibility of her getting infected was higher. Whoops.

She kept turning around, parrying any attacks, and looked around to see who could possibly assist her as she tried to turn the zombie back on to someone else.

Sarah had the creature's attention. Johnny jumped it from behind, clinging to its back like a monkey and slamming one hand down on its head and then the other one. He kicked at its back, bringing his feet down with every bit of his enhanced strength and it fell, Johnny still clinging to its back. He grabbed its head and twisted, rotting sinew and tendon pulling free. The head snapped at him, jaw still moving. He screamed and hurled it away.

The alternate Sue hadn't stayed down for long, of course – she was back up and on the move, and so was Topaz. Except now the witch had the upper hand – Sue was disoriented and emotionless, and Topaz had energy buzzing through her body.

The next blast had a little more power behind it than she'd intended.

It blew through Sue's (admittedly lackluster) forcefield with ease, barreling into the young woman and throwing her backwards. There was barely audible crack as her head connected with a rock. She was down.

"...Oh."

With one last zombie remaining to dispatch, Sarah steeled herself and raised her sword. She knew it was already dead, since it was a zombie after all, but still, having to kill something, or re-kill, whatever the proper term was, it wasn't an easy task for her.

There was a brief opening and she took advantage of it, thrusting out with her sword and sending the blade through the zombie's forehead. Thankfully its decomposing state made it a much easier task than otherwise, but it didn't make it any less gross and probably made it more so. Sarah pushed through as much as she could and then quickly withdrew the blade, gagging a little as she did so.

"Ohmygosh I hope that's the last of them, it is, right? Right?" She brushed the messy blade off on the rotten clothing of the recently fallen foe, which was still cleaner than her sword, then looked around to see how everyone else was faring.

After a final wary look at her duplicate revealed she was definitely down for the count, and wasn’t going to grab her ankles, Meggan flew to Hope’s aid. She aimed a kick for the duplicate’s back, hoping that she wouldn’t duck at the last second.

Alternate Hope stumbled forward, fighting for her balance and then fell forward, hitting the ground with a smack. Hope followed her, dropping to her knees, and the scissors close at hand. "Don't move." She warned sharply, but she did not have to. The piece of debris lying next to her head explained her silent, breathing form.

Looks could be deceiving though. AltHope moved suddenly, diving for the scissors Hope was still clutching. No sooner had she reclaimed them, however, then a blast of pure energy slammed into her with the force of a truck, throwing her back.

She wasn't breathing when she hit the ground.

"That's the last of them," Topaz said quietly as she lowered her hand, eyes slightly darker than usual.

Hope tried to suck in a breath as she scrambled away from the quiet form on the on floor. She glanced at it for a second as she got to her feet, but otherwise firmly turned her gaze away. "Please tell me it's over now..." She spoke softly when she finally managed to get a breath in.

Meggan was silent as she took in what had happened. She didn’t feel comfortable with alternate selves dying but didn’t want to say anything. If that was the last of them, was that it? Was it really over now? Or was there going to be a zombie Meggan walking around the grounds?

Topaz cast a gaze along the body-strewn grounds, trying not to look too long at the ones she was responsible for -- the ones wearing the faces of her friends. All was quiet, the calm after the storm.

They had won.

"Come on. We probably have to report in to somebody."

***

"Jesus fucking Christ," Gabriel threw a punch in the direction of a small, undead Nuyorican, who dodged his attack. He was drenched in sweat, and his hand still hurt like a bitch from when he'd tried to use it as zombie bait. "Kid, how is the living dead version of you so damn hard to kill?" 

"Maybe I'm just that awesome in all realities," the real Miles suggested. He wasn't faring much better than Gabriel; he'd never exerted himself so much before, and he was finally discovering his limits. Limits that the zombie him didn't seem to share. "Hard to get the jump on him when he's got a spider sense. We gotta overwhelm him, sabes? So he don't know what hit him." 

"Yo sé, yo sé, but easier said than done." Especially since Gabriel felt like his powers were taxed, which made any kind of shock-and-awe campaign look near impossible. He ducked the zombie's punch and tried to kick him in the chest. "My fucking hand, man." 

"Tell me about it. I've never venom blasted so much before. My fingers are tingling." Miles tried to slide in under Gabriel's attack, aiming to kick zombieMiles's feet out from under him, but zombiehim was still too fast, and leaped out of reach. Even for a shuffling mass of necrosing flesh, he was fast. It terrified Miles to think about what sort of zombie virus infected him and what had happened to that world. Something he'd do anything to prevent from happening to this one. 

ZombieMiles laughed as if he'd heard Miles's thoughts (and for all Miles knew, he did). "There's nothing to save here," it taunted. "You're all dead, you just don't know it yet. Give up." 

"Man, shut the hell up," was Miles's clever retort as he pressed the offense again. "You're a terrible me if you think I'll go that easy. What would Peter Parker do, motherfucker?" 

"Oh, Peter fucking Parker," Gabriel muttered. "Peter Parker had webs that shot out of his chingado hands. Could see that being really useful right now, really." Being able to tie up a villain in a neat little package before you kicked its ass sounded really convenient. 

Gabriel decided to go for the next best thing. Despite feeling like he'd maxed out, he engaged his powers so he could speed around behind not-Miles and put him in some kind of armlock. 

It was an effective tactic, with Miles throwing punch after kick after punch to keep zombiehim on its toes. It twisted in Gabriel's grip and would likely be able to free itself shortly thanks to zombie spider strength. But it was enough of a diversion to let Miles lay both hands on the zombie and discharge a pair of venom blasts. Probably the last ones of the day, considering how much energy he'd already expended, so he had to make them count. 

Maybe later he could appreciate just how strong they were. ZombieMiles convulsed in Gabriel's arms, and blood gushed from its mouth after it bit its tongue clean off. "You okay?" Miles asked Gabriel as the other man let the zombie fall and continue its violent thrashing on the floor. 

"Oh, sure," Gabriel said dryly. "I mean, you know. I've touched more corpse flesh than I cared to in this lifetime, and I'm 88 percent sure that I got hit on by the undead version of myself." He stomped on other-Miles' writhing hand. "But I caught sight of the Schindler's List version of myself not too long ago, so I'm thinking great day, all in all." He looked down at the bleeding thing below him. "So, this gonna kill him, or should I..." 

"If you told me four months ago that we'd do this, I'd think it's pretty sweet. Clint was right, though. It kinda isn't." 

The zombie stopped seizing and opened its mouth to speak. Hard to do without a tongue, but it managed to get a few words out. "More right than you think," it croaked, its glassy-eyed stare fixing on the ceiling. "No more. Dead. You all de . . ." 

Its head exploded like a water balloon under the force of Miles's foot. Blood and gore splattered everywhere. They were going to need a new rug after this. And new walls. And new clothes. 

"Didn't I tell him to shut up?" Miles asked, hugging his chest to stop himself from shaking so damn much. 

"You did." Gabriel stared at what had been the zombie before turning. "Hey." He put his hands firmly on Miles' shoulders. Letting Miles kill a version of himself was a mistake - he shouldn't have let the anyone do that. Big leadership mistake. Had the zombie not reacted so strongly to Clint's name, he might have ended things himself. 

Gabriel wanted to dwell on that a little longer, but more important things were required of him. "Hey," he said again, trying to shake the uncomfortable feeling he had. "Look. You did what you had to do. And now?" He gestured around, where there were no more zombie twins or weird-looking 19th century clones. It seemed like they'd actually pulled this off. 

"I know this sucks. It totally sucks. But you know." A hint of a smile came to his lips. Realizing how inappropriate that was made it even harder for it to go away. "Peter Parker. Great power, great responsibility." 

"Some Spider-Man I am." Miles shook his head and glanced down at his own mangled, desecrated corpse. "If I do die, make sure I don't turn into that. We should . . . we should make sure everyone else is okay."

***

Credit given where credit was due: Sarah's intervention had been crucial. It was to everyone's benefit that whoever programmed these cyborg clones' tech hadn't anticipated technopathy. 

Sue couldn't help herself as she knelt next to one of the now-deceased cyborg's limbs, which had been thrown away from its body, its wires and components strewn about. Thanks to Sarah, the situation was resolved and safe, which left the teen with a chance to take apart the robotics in front of her while her friends dealt with the remainder of the alternates from outside. "Take a look, Tan," she gestured towards the limb with a bright smile on her face, "this is years – no, even decades ahead of our prosthetics today. Actual cyborgs. We saw actual real cyborgs." 

Ty pulled the shadows close, almost obscuring him from sight. They felt less tangible, wispy in his grasp. He was definitely tiring. "One to go," he said quietly. 

The Mol-Borg's cyborg out threw out a bunch of sparks, striking the ground just before her alternate self did. She was breathing hard, then... then she wasn't. Molly stared down at herself, not really saying anything for awhile. 

The plan had worked, but she didn't think it'd actually make them dead, just... knocked out. Not dead. She didn't kill her, but she was still dead. Just like the other evil selves. It was them. They were dead. She wondered if they had always been evil or if they were good once. 

This wasn't fun. It started off that way, sort of. The mansion was being invaded like always. Fight the bad guys. Save the day. Then get ice cream. But now it wasn't fun anymore. This wasn't the same. 

Reaching down, Molly closed her eyes, then looked up at Ms. Frost the 2nd, trying her hardest not to cry. She didn't know what to say. 

Emma reached out and stroked Molly's hair lightly. "I'm sorry," she said. "I wish I could make it better. But I can't. It's okay to think this is terrible, Molly." She drew the girl closer, into a gentle hug, trying to impart comfort where there was none. 

Tandy looked around at the cyborg copies of themselves. "What a day." She wanted to laugh but she couldn't bring herself to that. "Decades advanced, you say? Sounds like something from a B-rated movie." 

Sue glanced up before pushing herself to her knees, glancing through the adjoining wall she had walked through earlier. "It's quiet now," she noted, trying to change the subject, "Sounds like the fighting's stopped outside, we should probably go check on the others." 

Ty bent double, breathing heavily. He glanced up at Sue. "That's great, can we maybe take a second to not fall over?" 

Emma looked up from Molly and did a quick headcount, relieved that everyone seemed to have survived the onslaught. "Nobody died" wasn't normally the kind of goal she felt the need to articulate before going on a mission, but with the way things had been going, it had gained a new importance. 

"Not even a B-grade movie," she said to Tandy, trying to lighten the mood somehow, draw the team's attention away from the fact that they had, once again, just killed versions of themselves. Seeing your own dead face, even altered, was not something that you could take lightly. "Some kind of Z-grade schlock horror like Robot Santas Take Over Mars. Or Vixen Pussycat Robots From Jupiter. We may have to have a movie night when this is all over and I can introduce you to bad 1960s schlock movies." 

If it was over. Emma didn't say it out loud, but she was fairly certain that this was not even close to over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> X-Project is an X-Men Movieverse/MCU RPG on Dreamwidth. It started in 2003, set right after the second X-Men movie, and from there took on a life of its own. Thirteen years later it’s become a universe all its own, and includes characters from all walks of Marvel life – no character is too small or too obscure for X-Project. We roleplay mainly through writing logs on email, as well as posts on Dreamwidth.
> 
> If you're interested, check out the below links!
> 
>   
> [Welcome to X-Project](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Welcome_To_X-Project) | [Application](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application) | [Available Characters](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Unplayed_Characters) | [Game Wiki](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) | [Read The Game](http://xp-friends.dreamwidth.org/read) | [FAQ](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=FAQ) | [Contact Us](mailto:x_moderators@googlegroups.com) | [Follow Us on Twitter!](http://twitter.com/#!/xprojectrpg) | [Rules](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Policy) | [Tumblr](http://www.tumblr.com/blog/xprojectrpg) | [Application Checklist](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application_Checklist)  
> 


	8. Log 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _The doppelgangers disappear, only to make way for the Dark Phoenix._

The first sound they heard was the groaning of the trees, as if a heavy storm was coming in. There was no wind, and yet the trees were heavily bent with foliage being torn down and whipped about. The windows of the mansion were shaking, and the first few tiles came off the roof. They could see the firebird in the distance; giant and flickering. The closer it got, the more heavily the grounds shook and windows began to shattered like cannon shots in the air. 

Molly stared up at the giant firebird that was getting closer. It was almost pretty, but kinda like how an explosion was pretty but it was really bad. Her evil self had said something about the Dark Phoenix. And now a firebird was coming. And Dr. Grey's codename was Phoenix. And they had been looking for her earlier 'cause things got really bad, but they wouldn't say a lot. 

But her stomach was in knots now, and if Dr. Grey was evil, like the alternate people (hey, maybe it was an alternate her too!) ,and she had brain powers... She didn't like that idea. 

"What do we do?" 

Tandy did not like the feeling she was getting. It was almost on par with when she was trapped inside her own head with Dweller calling the shots. She almost lost her footing as the ground began to shake and jumped as the windows began to shatter. "We are supposed to be defending, right?" Tandy knew they had no chance of surviving if they stayed and fought the flaming bird coming their way. 

Sue reflexively threw up a forcefield as cracks appeared in the ceiling and dust rained down around them. "Oh, this can't be good. Seriously, can't we get a break?" she asked rhetorically, turning her head from the window where the brilliance of the phoenix's flame was growing brighter. "I think maybe we should get out of here. Looks like the mansion's on its last legs." 

"Think defensively," replied Emma. "I've got the biggest telepathic shield I dare hold over us. That should buy us a moment if she chooses to mount a telepathic assault, particularly broad-scale." Emma didn't mention that – judging by the roiling of the astral plane – she might be able to blunt and dissipate a initial attack from hurting the others, but wasn't sure if her own powers would make it through such a blow. "But that won't do much good if the mansion falls down on us. Look for safe places, alcoves, exits." 

Topaz's mind was spinning as her eyes turned to the sky. "Shite." A dim part of her mind noted that Alice would probably be ashamed of how much she was swearing. Her head snapped up when the windows shattered, and she threw up a shield over her and the people closest to her to protect them from the falling glass. 

Meggan automatically raised her arms to protect her face from the glass and stopped midway through upon noticing the barrier. She shot Topaz a grateful smile. Quietly, her eyes moved from there to the sky. It hurt to look directly at the flaming bird shape, which grew brighter by the moment. It hurt more to feel like there was nothing anyone could do. Those cracks in the ceiling looked even more ominous than they had moments prior. “Sue’s right, we need to leave now.” 

"I don't know if we can... we might be too late..." Hope spoke almost without thought as she stared up to the sky, completely ignoring the glass and the cracks in the ceiling. "Whatever that is exactly... it nearly here..." The words sounded ominous as the sky turned more and more fiery. 

As another wave of shaking began again, Gabriel instinctively grabbed Miles. His first thought hadn't been an earthquake or a tornado, but that he'd bled more than he thought and that he was about to pass out. That's when he looked up, seeing the flames flying toward them. 

It just made him grab Miles tighter. 

Miles was not a swearer. The first time his parents heard him curse, they'd literally washed out his mouth with soap. And since then, he'd had a pretty clean vocabulary with only a few slip-ups. But now, he reasoned, his parents would forgive him for the string of swears that left his lips. 

He didn't even really think about what to do next. His spider sense blared louder than it ever had in the year since he'd manifested so the only option was to GTFO as fast as superhumanly possible. Without warning, he pulled out of Gabriel's grasp so he could pick up the older boy and throw him into a fireman's carry. Then he ran as fast as his short legs to would carry him to the other end of the hallway and hurled himself feet-first at the window. 

Miles landed roughly on his feet, slightly dazed by the impact of descent, and not-so-gently helped Gabriel down. But even that daring escape didn't do anything to quiet his spider sense. Danger was still coming. 

The air grew hot and close around them all as the firebird swelled, coming closer and closer. The walls of the mansion were shuttering, dust and dirt cascading down into the air. At the centre of the firebird, they could just make out the figure of a slim young woman. She spread her hands, and the roof started to groan. Stacks of slate and tile flew from it and with a gesture, the top of the mansion was sheared off without any apparent effort. 

There was no other option. As they fled, telekinetic bolts smashed into the mansion, seemingly at random. Before they could make more than a few steps, the walls of the mansion began to come down, burying them in rubble as the telekinesis ate away at the mansion, turning it from a school into a disaster in minutes. 

The fury was only beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> X-Project is an X-Men Movieverse/MCU RPG on Dreamwidth. It started in 2003, set right after the second X-Men movie, and from there took on a life of its own. Thirteen years later it’s become a universe all its own, and includes characters from all walks of Marvel life – no character is too small or too obscure for X-Project. We roleplay mainly through writing logs on email, as well as posts on Dreamwidth.
> 
> If you're interested, check out the below links!
> 
>   
> [Welcome to X-Project](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Welcome_To_X-Project) | [Application](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application) | [Available Characters](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Unplayed_Characters) | [Game Wiki](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) | [Read The Game](http://xp-friends.dreamwidth.org/read) | [FAQ](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=FAQ) | [Contact Us](mailto:x_moderators@googlegroups.com) | [Follow Us on Twitter!](http://twitter.com/#!/xprojectrpg) | [Rules](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Policy) | [Tumblr](http://www.tumblr.com/blog/xprojectrpg) | [Application Checklist](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application_Checklist)  
> 

**Author's Note:**

> X-Project is an X-Men Movieverse/MCU RPG on DreamWidth. It started in 2003, set right after the second X-Men movie, and from there took on a life of its own. Thirteen years later it’s become a universe all its own, and includes characters from all walks of Marvel life – no character is too small or too obscure for X-Project. We roleplay mainly through writing logs on email, as well as posts on Dreamwidth.
> 
> If you're interested, check out the below links!
> 
>   
> [Welcome to X-Project](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Welcome_To_X-Project) | [Application](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application) | [Available Characters](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Unplayed_Characters) | [Game Wiki](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) | [Read The Game](http://xp-friends.dreamwidth.org/read) | [FAQ](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=FAQ) | [Contact Us](mailto:x_moderators@googlegroups.com) | [Follow Us on Twitter!](http://twitter.com/#!/xprojectrpg) | [Rules](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Category:Policy) | [Tumblr](http://www.tumblr.com/blog/xprojectrpg) | [Application Checklist](http://x-journal.net/Wiki/index.php?title=Application_Checklist)  
> 


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